The basics of Spell Forging was simple —he just had to learn in what order to activate the Magic Circles in, which he’d been doing unknowingly. Clearly, he couldn’t apply a Push Component and then create the Mana Ball, as that would be pushing nothing and then creating what was supposed to be pushed.
He’d breezed through that.
Mind Inhibitor Modification was a somewhat complicated concept that referred to how to turn the thought process of casting Magic into a reaction —his Computation took care of it, making it immensely easy for him to just cast it by thinking about it.
Timers and Overflow focused on the fourth dimension, that being time, and how to create and manage elaborate timed bombs if he ever had the need to, which at the moment, he did not. He took a glance at that last time during his first fight with the giants to create the Flawed Explosive Mana Ball, which he later referred to so he could learn how to insert the concept of time into his Explosive Mana Balls so he wouldn’t kill himself.
Basically, he’d more or less read it back when he was in Veidrheim. Then there was the real meat of the first chapter of the Spellbook —Shaping Magic. That was also the most practical of all the concepts he’d learn.
Shaping Magic was a simple concept that Sean hadn’t managed to grasp mainly because he was being inattentive and jumping into situations that were far beyond his capabilities far too many times. They’d turned alright for the most part, but still, after he started reading up on shaping Magic, he realized how dumb he was to ignore it.
It was a simple concept, one that would have taken him no longer than a few hours to grasp. Within his Mindscape, he saved a lot of time. He could even practice his Magic in the black void that was his Mindscape. It was comfortable, almost, like he was in space and floating with no worries.
Then again, he’d never been to space. The only knowledge he had of it was from movies and Youtube. Mostly from short videos.
Creating various shapes was simply… replacing the Mana Release Circle that made up his Mana Balls. Concepts such as revolving shapes and the like were next-level concepts that he’d learn later down the path, but making spells with a single shape that never changed was easy.
He’d just have to replace one circle.
It would be easy.
Sean closed his eyes, as useless as that was, and he thought of the Mana Release Circle that was in the shape of a disc. The very concept of “shaping” was dependent on the dimensions of the objects.
The Ball Shape, which the Mana Ball used, was a three-dimensional object. On the other hand, a Disc Shape was a two-dimensional object. That meant he had to draw a line instead of the triangle. That was the designation for the number of dimensions. If he, for some reason, needed to do anything that included revolving movement, he’d have to draw a square as that would imply it was a four-dimensional object that used time as a factor.
For now, though, only triangles and lines were necessary.
Then there were the two circles. The outer one was the “canvas” of the function. Without the canvas, nothing would work, so the outer circle was necessary. On the other hand, the inner circle was for the shape.
Both the disc and the sphere were essentially the same “shape” so all he had to do to create a Mana Disc was replace the triangle with a line.
That was all it took.
It was easy to imagine. Computation didn’t make it easier for him as he wasn’t yet acquainted with the circle intimately but he could cast even without the help of Computation. Otherwise, he would have never learned to use Magic in the first place.
For now, he didn’t need a Push Component. Instead, he just used it in its lonesome.
The singular Magic Circle appeared before him and Sean tapped it. He couldn’t see his own body but he felt where it was. It was as if he was aware of anything and everything that happened within his Mindscape even without the need to see.
Once he tapped it, the Magic Circle was swallowed up and a disc the size of a small table appeared before him. It didn’t move and simply hovered there.
He was sure it could cut through things. That was essentially what he needed. Everything he had now was basically blunt trauma. Well, other than the rending effect of Mana Balls. They were able to do some damage but not much. The one doing the heavy lifting was the Push Component, turning the mostly corporeal balls of blue light into wrecking balls.
It could make a hole through some metals with some dedication but for the most part, it wasn’t very useful in combat.
Even the Explosive Component only really did blunt damage. Since he assumed that there weren’t any shrapnels shooting out from the Explosive Mana Balls.
Now, he wanted to see how well his Magic would fare against a tree. It could make a dent in it before dissipating. Sean knew that it was due to the fact that the Mana Balls not being very dense. They could be cracked if they hit something with enough force, and often, whenever they hit something with enough force, they shattered and turned into nothing.
Somehow, the Explosive Component made it linger a while until it exploded.
But if it was in a Disc Shape, then it wouldn’t break as easily. He hoped it wouldn’t. His Mana Balls couldn’t use the full potential of the Push Component just yet. He could shoot it fast but it didn’t count if it broke apart before it did damage.
Then again, if he condensed it, then he could do some decent damage. It was basically the difference between slinging a basketball and rock at someone with the same strength. The basketball would slightly hurt whoever it hit, yes, but a rock? That’d devastate them.
Now, replace that rock with a knife thrown by a professional.
The difference in lethality was obvious.
Mana Disc
As a student of the Theoretical Branch of Magic, you have started to delve into the concept of Shaping the very Mana for various uses. The easiest shape to master is undoubtedly that of the Disc, granting your Mana enhanced cutting capabilities and durability due to the nature of two-dimensional objects.
Skill Rank: D-Rank
Skill Mastery: 0%
Mana Cost: 5
Damage Formula: 2 x Stat used for Force Applied (Cutting)
Skill Type: Magical